The present invention relates to the inspection of construction works.
The regular and detailed assessment of the state of a construction work makes it possible to establish work diagnostics, to effect monitoring of the maintenance of the work and to use the most appropriate solutions, when repairs become necessary.
Most often, a diagnostics mission involves an exhaustive survey of the visible defects and disturbances on the construction, and on the various materials which make it up. A specialist may then, by analyzing the combined typology and topology of these defects, establish a diagnosis, that is to say identify the cause of these defects, their subsequent consequences, and recommend remedies. In the case of maintenance, in addition to this operation of surveying and analyzing defects, checks and maintenance actions are effected on the structural elements or items of equipment of the work.
The diagnosis also requires a knowledge of the characteristics of the material of the construction work or structural parts, its environment, its conditions of use and operation, for example. More generally, any information useful for the diagnosis must be associated with the construction work. The most frequent association is that of the defects observed on it.
Currently, surveys of defects are effected manually on a set of diagrams. They reproduce the scene observed by the operator, with levels, positions, dimensions, states and comments. They may possibly be supplemented with photographs. At a second stage, these elements are restored on CAD drawings (Computer-Aided Design), to be analyzed, or they are entered manually in tables or database fields. This method of surveying defects depends very much on the conditions of the site, the perception of the operator and the care he takes in transcribing his observations.
The subsequent analysis of the work is an important synthesis task which is tedious and complex, for it requires:
a topological analysis of the defects, that is to say getting back to the probable causes, through trees of cause-and-effect relationships, statistically (75% of the defects observed are due to this cause etc.),
a topological analysis of the defects, that is to say a display of a facet of the work, groups of facets in an overall plane, so as to explain geometrically the position of the defects.
The present invention provides reliable and uniform methods of surveying defects on site. The invention further provides assistance to those responsible for the analysis, to facilitate the recording of the defects and the associated causes, and to automate the production of the analysis reports.
According to the invention, there is provided a method of assisting in the inspection of a construction work, wherein a portable terminal is handed to an operator to perform a collection of information on the work, including a survey of defects, the portable terminal comprising:
a user interface, including a graphics interface to display views of the work and acquire information relating to observations made by the operator on the work;
a memory containing a work database, comprising files defining the views of the work displayed on the graphics interface, data structures respectively associated with types of defects which may appear on the work, and description data of any defects previously observed on the work, organized according to the associated data structures; and
control and processing means allowing the operator to control the display of views of the work from the work database, to control the acquisition of information relating to observed defects, and to update the defect description data.
In response to selection of a type of defect by the operator, the control and processing means activate, by means of the associated data structure, a dialog with the operator for the acquisition of description parameters of the defect, which are used to form a representation of the defect on the view of the work displayed on the graphics interface and to update the defect description data. Identical means may exist for the acquisition of other information useful for diagnostic purposes.
This method suppresses the phase of restoring the observations which the prior methods comprised, and integrates an aid to the on-site survey. By means of the graphics interface displaying views of the visited work, the operator may activate defect description files from the work database, ensuring a rationalized survey made in a single phase.
To acquire the visual description of a defect, the user interface of the portable terminal may have tools for drawing defects on the view of the work displayed on the graphics interface, such as an acquisition and drawing member for a tactile screen.
The views of the work displayed on the graphics interface may be of different kinds. An advantageous representation comprises flat views of facets of the work, in particular unfolded facets.
These views may be supplemented by images (fixed or animated) taken by the operator by means of a camera connectable to an external port of the portable terminal. When the operator takes such an image, after having selected a type of defect, the method associates the updated defect description data with a corresponding image file.
Image processing means may be provided in the portable terminal, to superimpose images taken with the camera on the flat view of one or more facets of the work. The survey of defects is then facilitated. It is sufficient for the operator to acquire the position of the defects by means of the graphics interface tools, then to input the code of these defects and acquire any additional relevant parameters.
Certain of the facets may be associated with data structures representing facet zones displayed on the views of these facets, and for which one or more zone attributes are defined. These facet zones allow a specific survey, which may be different to the general survey on the facet, as well as analyses which are finer than those obtained by the subdivision of the work observed into facets. In particular, it is possible to associate with certain of these facets a defects analysis algorithm, the execution of which involves the examination of conditions relating to features of defects surveyed in the associated facet zones. Such an algorithm makes it possible to diagnose certain defects, or suggest to the operator additional measures or maintenance actions.
The work database may further comprise maintenance data to indicate to the operator maintenance actions to be undertaken on the work.
In a preferred embodiment of the method, the updated defect description data for the work are integrated in an observations database, and analysis software uses the observations database to assist an analysis manager in the preparation of analysis reports further to effected surveys.
The method then provides an analysis tool to assist the diagnosis. The database is analyzed to allow fine topological and typological analyses, the editing of reports (pre-established text files, with variable fields depending on the project).
Typically the observations database and the analysis software are hosted by an analysis computer separate from the portable terminal.
To facilitate the topological analysis of the defects surveyed, this computer may have a display unit, controllable to display at least partially and superimposed, a plurality of distinct facets of the work having a common shape, showing any defects surveyed on these facets. If certain of these facets displayed superimposed have the same shape but different sizes, they may be deformed mathematically, e.g. homothetically, so that they are displayed with a common size or at least the superimposition provides a pertinent representation of the defect configuration. This deformation may be performed automatically or manually by means of a mouse type unit.
The data structures in the work database may include data structures relating to defects appearing in point-like, linear or area form. The analysis software may then display three-dimensional views of portions of the work, including representations of two-dimensional defects obtained from the description parameters of defects appearing in linear form, and/or representations of three-dimensional defects obtained from descriptive parameters of defects appearing in area form.
The observations database may relate to one or more works, and be a portion of another database relating to a greater number of works, means being provided to restrict access to said other database. This allows decentralized use of the method, whilst making it possible to enrich the global database.
To facilitate the typological defect analysis, the analysis software may be arranged to generate, from the updated defect description data, a histogram of the defects observed on at least one part of the work. The analysis manager may select parts of the work which interest him, and include the histograms which appear most significant to him in the analysis report.
The method may also be used to assist the analysis manager in the identification of the causes of the observed defects, even if, of course, the analysis manager is responsible for the actual diagnosis, and in particular the decision to indicate this or that type of cause. For this purpose, each data structure associated with a type of defect is further associated, in the work database, with a set of causes attributable to the observation of this defect.
The analysis software may then be arranged to generate, from updated description data of defects, a histogram of the causes included in the sets associated with the data structures associated with types of defects observed on at least one part of the work.
In practice, after having first defined the data structures associated with the defect types, they may be assembled in a structured way in a general defects database. The data structures of each work database are then extracted from this general database, for example after selection by a filtering performed on the basis of an indication of the type of work.
In an advantageous embodiment of the method, the analysis software uses sort operations effected on the description database of defects observed on the work, a sort operation comprising providing a filtering request from an analysis computer equipped with the analysis software and processing said filtering request by a central server distinct from the analysis computer. Preferably, at least one filtering request received by the central server is processed only if the updated defect description data for the work have been transmitted by the analysis computer to the central server. The analysis computer may then be incited to supply the data it collects, the sort operations being very important in the framework of the analysis tasks. By means of this, it is ensured that the general databases administered by the server are constantly enriched by the data resulting from the on-site observations.
Another aspect of the present invention relates to a portable terminal for assistance in the inspection of a construction work, comprising the elements listed above, and wherein the control and processing means activate, in response to selection of a type of defect by the operator, by means of the associated data structure, a dialog with the operator for the acquisition of description parameters of the defect, use the acquired description parameters, in particular to provide a representation of the defect on the view of the work displayed on the graphics interface, and update the defect description data. The invention is further directed to a computer-readable medium, having software and database modules recorded thereon to be loaded in a portable terminal for carrying out the aforesaid method, as well as said software and database modules considered by themselves.
A third aspect of the present invention relates to an analysis device to assist in the inspection of a construction work, comprising an analysis computer hosting an observations database and analysis software for carrying out a method as set out hereabove from defect description data updated by an operator by means of a portable terminal on the site of the work. The invention is further directed to a computer-readable medium, having software and database modules recorded thereon, including analysis software and an observations database to be loaded in an analysis computer for carrying out the aforesaid method, as well as said software and database modules considered by themselves.